In New Opinion, Minnesota Election Court Seriously Damages Coleman's Chances
The Minnesota election court has just handed down a very important ruling that will determine the entire course of the rest of this trial -- and it's very bad news for Norm Coleman, cutting off multiple avenues he was pursuing in order to get more votes for himself thrown into the count.
Yesterday the court heard arguments regarding the campaigns' positions on 19 categories of rejected absentee ballot envelopes, and whether the voters should be cut sufficient slack as to allow the ballot in. The court has now handed down a ruling on 13 of those categories -- and it's an emphatic No.
Coleman has currently been allowed to argue for the inclusion of about 4,800 ballots, which were selected from the total pool of over 11,000 rejected votes and just so happen to come largely from his own strongholds. What this ruling means is that he is going to have to significantly chop that list down for the remainder of this trial.
This is not the final word on this question -- Coleman will almost certainly appeal it -- but it's been a very rough day.
The court rejected Coleman's contention that swaths of citizens have been unjustly denied their votes: "The court is confident that although it may discover certain additional ballots that were legally cast under relevant law, there is no systemic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures."
The court also walked back an approach they'd previously been looking at -- that a ballot could be accepted if any non-compliance by the voter could be blamed on an election official failing to instruct or correct them. Instead, they say full compliance is needed for the categories laid out here.
Next, they don't just reject categories of ballots as having been illegally cast, but they singled out a specific voter that Coleman brought forward as a witness. The court identifies Douglas Thompson -- who admitted in court that his girlfriend forged his signature on the ballot application, but was demanding his vote be counted because he signed the ballot envelope -- as an example of an illegally cast vote that shall not be counted.
And in perhaps the cruelest cut of all, the court embraced Coleman's approach of adopting categories of ballots -- for the purposes of eliminating them: "Although the Court rejects the categories initially proposed by Contestants, it nonetheless believes that trial in this matter can be streamlined by ruling that certain categories of ballots are not legally cast as a matter of law."
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
This could make for a good novel...
The First Hundred Days; How the Minnesota Senate Seat Remained Empty
February 13, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is Good News For Norm. :)
Can Norm just stop being an asshat and give it up?
John
February 13, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
You beat me to it!! Next time, can I do the,
"This GREAT NEWS, for Nor..." ?
February 13, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, really I am, but y'all just aren't quiiiiite idiotic enough.
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!!! FOR COLEMAN!!
Ah, there. That's better....
February 14, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a huge blow to Coleman's case (which was a house of cards to begin with). Hopefully, it will cut down the scope of testimony significantly; though, I am sure that Norm will claim that his witnesses are all geared toward the remaining 7 categories (in looking at the order, I think it strikes out 12 of the 19 (some of the 10 listed in the order appear to refer to multiple categories)). My only question is how much testimony will they require of the remaining issues and how long will it take?
I wish the MN SCt would get its act together and order a provisional certificate for Franken to be seated.
February 13, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rethuglicans have no dignity and no decency whatsoever. They chase power and money like complete sociopaths and to ever expect them to give up either without a fight is wishful thinking. Just like the bipartisan crap we had to endure just to get NO rethuglican votes on the stimulus bill at all in the House we should all learn this lesson once and for all ......
Rethuglicans are selfishly irrational people who should never be listened to or compromised with and for heavens sake never left in charge of anything more important than taking out the garbage.
February 13, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure Coleman knows he has no chance winning. The carnival act he is engaging in has only one purpose - keeping one Democrat out of the Senate as long as possible. IIRC, in politics it's called being an asshole.
February 14, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
So assuming that the 4800 ballots in question were divided equally between each of the 19 categories, that would have been roughly 252 ballots/category, so 252 x 7 remaining categories = 1764 ballots still in contention to be counted.
Of those seven remaining categories. where they allowed or just not ruled on yet?
February 13, 2009 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
The order makes no mention of the other categories. It implies that it cannot rule on the counting of ballots by category -- the campaign putting forth that ballot has the burden of affirmatively showing why that particular ballot should be counted, which is consistent with what they did with allowing 24 of the 61 Franken ballots to be counted earlier this week.
February 13, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Marc Elias, Franken's attorney, says that some of the remaining categories that were not explicitly ruled out have been significantly narrowed. The biggest result here is that each side must show that a ballot has met the 4 statutory requirements to be accepted. In this, the court set an even tougher standard than Franken, who would have allowed votes to count from voters who were not registered because of errors on the part of election officials. The court ruled that, if you are not registered, you can't vote, period.
But just to play out your theory -- if the universe that meet these criteria is 1764 ballots, Coleman's only hope is to prevail by winning 57-43 over Franken. I suppose it's possible if the remaining universe is sufficiently cherry-picked -- but Franken's universe of excluded absentees has not yet been finalized, and may be as big or bigger than Coleman's. The result is clear, as it has been for a couple months now; but Coleman still has cards to play and it isn't about winning for him.
February 13, 2009 10:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to the Star-Tribune:
As long as they leave any category open, Coleman’s lawyers are going to claim that most of the rejected absentees are in that category.
February 14, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
If this process finishes and it is decided that Franken has won, is he seated right away or do they still have to wait for all of Coleman's appeals as well?
February 13, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe that Minnesota Law prevents the issuance of the certificate until all legal action is completed. Therefore if Norm appeals...
February 13, 2009 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps that is what the Minnesota Supreme Court is waiting for before ruling on Franken’s motion for provisional certification. When Franken is ruled the winner by the three judge panel and Coleman appeals, they could rule that he should be certified while the appeal goes on.
That is probably the best we can hope for at this point.
February 14, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where is all the Republican outrage! The people of the State are suffering without a Senator, the loser won't accept his lot and what's with all the idiots who can't fill out a ballot?
Oh wait...that's right...it's the Republicans who lost. Now it's noble to fight to the end, it's good for democracy and some bureaucrat is responsible for ballots that are confusing and difficult.
I am glad the courts are taking their time and allowing every argument to be heard - I would expect the same if my candidate were on the losing side.
February 13, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Imagine if Franken had tried to drag the election out this extent. If Al was still clinging to such thin chances, the entire Republican party would be stomping on his hands to get him to fall off the cliff. They would have been screaming, "sore loser" for the past month.
February 13, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point. Goes to the fundamental difference between the parties... they're remorseless thugs and we're not.
February 13, 2009 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly right. The young republicans always remind me of what the hitler youth corps must have felt like. A bunch of entitled bullies angry with little people for questioning their ruthless greed. The party that has made a comfortable home for southern racists and bible bigots, throw in the robber barons, and what the hell kind of personality supports that? ... gets excited about supporting that?
February 14, 2009 1:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Hitler Youth became mandatory in December of 1936 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hitler_Youth&oldid=266005247#Membership ). So, the modern Young Republicans are all volunteers who explictly embrace such philosophies as embodied in the official Republican motto of "Arbeit macht frei" (Republican political theory always sounds better in the original German - my apology to modern Germans who are better world citizens than we are, IMHO).
February 14, 2009 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fugitive,
I fought ex Hitler Youth in the Waffen SS during the war, they were such fanatics we had to practically kill the sons of bitches twice.
February 14, 2009 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes and that is the only reason they have been in power for all these years. And it will be how they regain that power in spite of their incompetence to run the government (except of course to bilk the public). The reasons the GOP lost the last couple of cycles is that the chickens of thirty years have come home and Obama is brilliant. When the Democrats straighten things out (as they always do) and President Obama is a distinguished elder statesman The GOP will be back with the same BS and bag of tricks. And the voters will fall for it if the Ds don't learn to put on a show to get the message out.
When will the Democratic Party figure out that political theatre is how the game is played? If you aren't ready to stamp your feet, howl in mock indignation and plain out put on a show for the cameras then you ain't playing hard ball and you are gonna get rolled.
But this is why I do have high hopes for Franken. The man understands and knows how to put on a show. I think the GOPers know it too. They know that is what will punch holes in their leakey boat.
February 14, 2009 6:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is Minnesota Election Law. In any other state, Al Franken is already the seated Senator from Minnesota.
Hopefully once the trial court has finished, and if an appeal is filed, the Minnesota Supreme Court will issue a ruling on Franken's motion to compel the issuance of the certificate.
February 13, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
"stomping on his hands to get him to fall off the cliff."
That's perfect! KinD of what they must have been doing to Judd Gregg, Spector and the Maine Senators.
February 13, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Every day Franken is not able to help the people of Minnesota in the Senate is a victory for this enemy of democracy Coleman. But it's also a victory for us, because it renders more permanent the gathering certainty of the American people that republicans are just a bunch of creeps.
Boehner throwing Obama's stimulus bill on the floor in an act of thinly veiled racism today is also an aide to understanding, in that regard.
I'm so ashamed I didn't do more over the years to keep these people from ever seeing power, but at least they're showing their true colors now, and hanging themselves on their own lynching rope.
February 13, 2009 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boehner dropped the package like a sack of cement, but how did he handle the Patriot Act? He probably carried it around like the Torah!
February 14, 2009 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Eric, you have no idea how much I've been enjoying reading this. Is there a chance all the articles could be collected in print? I'd buy.
February 13, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I still think the stall was just to muddy things up and hopefully have the stimulus blocked. I foresee Coleman conceding by the end of next week now that the stimulus has passed.
February 13, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Snort. He will never concede.
February 13, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially since the Employee Free Choice Act hasn't even been introduced yet. There's a lot of legislation coming down the pike that the GOP would rather fight without Franken in the Senate.
The will of the people matters not at all compared with the desires of the Republican Party.
February 13, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is one of the remaining ballot catagories the pile that the Coleman lawyers infected with additional notes and marks? Just wondering.
February 13, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Imagine if Franken had tried to drag the election out this extent. If Al was still clinging to such thin chances, the entire Republican party would be stomping on his hands to get him to fall off the cliff. They would have been screaming, "sore loser" for the past month."
What the hell are you talking about? Coleman was ahead until January.
What about the first two months in which Franken was behind and refused to conceed?
Just accept that every ballot needs to be accounted for, apparently even 100% Franken bundles left in the trunk of a car.
February 13, 2009 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm, let's see.
We have one candidate who "refused to concede" until after a recount that was mandated by state law for the exact purpose of verifying the results of an election this close. (During which time the Senate was not in session, btw.)
We have another candidate who "refused to concede" and contested the election by his own choice, and has declared his intention to appeal as far as possible, despite steadily diminishing chances of success (during which time the Senate was in session.)
Yep, no difference there. No difference at all.
February 13, 2009 11:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Red, there were a few calls for Franken to concede, and if he had, I doubt the expensive recount would have gone through.
As it is, both Coleman AND Franken have sent challenges. This is an article about Coleman's challenges, but Franken's haven't been mentioned.
Coleman was on top for longer than he's been on bottom. I don't see why its such an issue. Let it play out, every single Senator is jacking us around anyways. One less, regardless of party, isn't too much of a loss.
February 14, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Forwyn, the difference is, Coleman's people challenged more legitimate ballots than Franken's on election day, in Franken leaning precincts, which is a typical republican strategy. Franken would have been nuts to concede before the recount, since he knew a lot of the Coleman challenges would be thrown out, and votes for him would be returned. I think Franken believed he would be much further ahead at this point, but since the Coleman team was incompetent, they ended up getting a lot of their own votes challenged and and returned as well, so the recount didn't favor Franken as much. That said, the best thing to do is let this play out via Minnesota law. If the people of Minnesota don't like it, they are welcome to try and get the law changed.
February 14, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
----
Just accept that every ballot needs to be accounted for, apparently even 100% Franken bundles left in the trunk of a car.
----
Don't you just love it when Republican lawyers make up sh*t and it gets reported as the truth?
http://minnesotaindependent.com/17385/recount-hannity-pawlenty-car-ballot-lie
- FTF
February 14, 2009 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Forwyn, put a cork in it. NO ballots were "left in the trunk" of ANY car. SOME originally overlooked ballots were discovered at various polling places and election offices during the recount---adding votes for all 3 candidates here and there. One or two election-night reporting errors were corrected by actually counting ballots--Franken was the gainer there, as the physical count of ballots verified. The ONLY envelope of missing ballots which has disappeared is one from a pro-Franken precinct which was counted on election night, matches the machine totals, and gave Al a 33-vote plurality....I know why the COLEMAN camp would like to make such an envelope vanish, but you think we are stupid enough to suppose that for some reason the Franken side made an envelope full of votes FAVORING FRANKEN disappear? That is just what your comment implied.
February 14, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never a good urine-soaked rag around when it'd come in really handy, is there?
February 14, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Everyone here in Minnesota is basically sick to death of Norm Coleman at this point. We're tired of his desperate, pointless garbage and we wish he would just go away. Franken won. Even Republicans accept that. Norm is just being a complete dipshit. My read on this is that he's being manipulated and suckered by his money-grubbing, let's-see-how-much-we-can-squeeze-out-of-this-chump attorneys.
February 13, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
The RNC is probably encouraging his holding out as long as he can. Where he goes to work after the dusts settles and Franken gets the seat will tell you whose money he's giving to those attorneys.
February 14, 2009 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
The money they're sqeezing has to come from some place and I'm betting it's republicans of some stripe, either officials or big money donors not neccessarily from MN.
February 14, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
ahem...squeezing, maybe sqeezing, too.
February 14, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Dems still don't get it. As long as Franken is not seated, Coleman is winning. If Harry Reid had any stones, he'd find a way to seat Franken -- to change the equation. Such a move would take all the air out of Coleman's sails in seconds. As long as Franken is NOT in the senate, they are equal and Coleman has reason to keep fighting.
February 14, 2009 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. That Senate rules business about requiring a 2/3 majority of Senate votes in order to change Senate rules in order to allow a non-certified provisional Senator-elect to take his seat is just detail-oriented BS, isn't it?
Will all those of you haranguing on this please just go familiarize yourself with the institution and its procedures and rules first? It will save a lot of wasted space with comments like this being repeated endlessly.
And if I sound grouchy, well, first, look at the name. And then ask yourself why you feel compelled to sound off so pointlessly about things you clearly do not understand.
February 14, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign.
February 14, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is like the never ending story. When is this going to end?
February 14, 2009 5:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
You say it's bad comedy, but it's actually great comedy as presented.
February 14, 2009 9:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are Coleman's lawyers really concerned whether he wins this contest or not? Can you imagine the billing hours going on? Probably $750.00 to $1000.00 per hour per attorney? Now they have another decision to appeal. Manna from heaven. Their other purpose, other than raking in money for their firms, is most likely to extend Franken's certification. There doesn't seem to be much difference to me between them and ambulance chasers. Isn't it their side that constantly complains about lawyers? Except when they take advantage of the right to go to court WITH A LAWYER.
February 14, 2009 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
To begin with .... it totally blows my mind why the courts of Minnesota is willing to expend all of this time and money just to appease a "poor loser". This entire scenario stands on the edge of ridiculous. Someone PLEASE explain this to me!
February 14, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now that they know Snowe and Joe and some of the others across the aisle are willing to capitulate for the sake of their constituents, the string-pullers who have strung this out may have finally decided that holding up Franken's certification is no longer worth the effort.
Franken represented vote #60 to these myopic Cons, and when one of their own willingly (to save her political arse, no doubt) crossed the aisle it made the Frankenhaters throw up their hands and lament.
Now maybe they will grow fatigued with their obstructionism in Minnesota, and they'll le the chips fall where they should.
Al Franken in da House! (er, I mean da Senate!)
February 14, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't wait for the day Senator Franken speaks in the Senate - those toads won't know what hit them...
February 14, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
The only good that might come out of Coleman's tantrum (which reminds me of a child holding his breath until he gets what he wants) - it just might prompt MN's legislature to change the law so that such controversies will be disposed of in a reasonable amount of time, for that matter, hopefully, every other State will take a look at it also. Whatever the due process MN is going through right now is simply ridiculous and can only be harmful the public.
IMHO, with respect to counting votes, election rules, etc., fairness and due process should belong to the citizens, not the candidate, and this endless litigation is NOT FAIR to the public and DENYS DUE PROCESS to the CITIZENS.
All we hear out of Republicans is how it is unfair to "me" and public good is irrelevant.
Everyone should write their Governors and State Legislators and demand that they review and change your state elections laws so this ridiculous drag-out won't happen anywhere in the US again while preserving the right to challenge.
February 14, 2009 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
As a Minnesotan, I have to disagree with you there, Jay. Minnesota's election law mandates a recount when the vote margin is less than one half of one percent. In other words, it is the people of Minnesota (i.e. the State) that orders the recount, not any particular candidate. The recount is due process put into place to avoid the kind of political games the GOP played in 2000 in Florida. The process is not fast, as we have now learned, but it is thorough and fair. We appreciate that here in Minnesota. That said, there are those who don't care for the recount process and would prefer an instant runoff election, and changes to the law are being discussed in the state legislature. But I fail to see how any part of the process or the process as a whole is harmful to the public when the goal is to ensure that every valid vote counts and gets counted.
February 16, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink